Manufacturing Recruitment Advice - Improve your team and business reputation

13 July 2018

Speaker 1 : You're listening to Manufacturing Ignition Recruitment Advice bringing you right up to date on the latest recruitment information, trends, and discussions to help you recruit the best people for your business. Sponsored by Bonfire Recruitment, helping manufacturing leaders across the UK to attract the best talent for their manufacturing company. Ignite your business or career today by visiting www.bonfirerecruitment.com. Here's your hosts, Terry Mallin and Scott Buchanan.

Terry Mallin: Good. Okay. Guys, over the last couple of weeks what we'll looking at is specific problems that you as a business leader might face within your business in terms of recruitment. And I'm glad to say now when you go through, some of the solutions to those problems that we went through. If you've not listened to the first two podcasts, jump back on to SoundCloud or iTunes and search "Manufacturing Ignition podcast", and you'll be able to catch up with us. So jumping on in the first two solutions, the first solution, remember, the first problem we discussed was a current management team being [inaudible 00:01:20] up. And the solution to that, as a business leader, you're looking for a strong management team. And that's to make sure the foundations are secure within the business. I want you to manage the growth, implement specific changes that are required, take the team and the business through that[inaudible 00:01:38] and maintaining that positive workforce. Good culture goes hand in hand with retaining staff, and that naturally improves productivity as well. Providing that structure, you'll have complete confidence that the business is going in the right direction. You know, what is your thoughts, Scott?

Scott Buchanan: I think you're spot on. I think it's actually looking at making sure it's the right talent and the right areas, initially, or at least as a development plan to allow that to happen, and actually the working environment is tying in with what the talent is looking to do, but ties in with the company vision going forwards to see, because I think there's a lot of people that come through our hands over the years, the only reason they're looking, traditionally, is because there's something very simple that could be fixed. Do you see? And I think that looking at the softer piece is absolutely important in addition to making sure that it's the right people in the right places.

Terry Mallin: Listening and communication is very key in this because you can understand; as to the question that I've got really to everyone listening out there who heads up or is a decision maker within our businesses; everyone's been thinking of the strategy and the plans for 2018 over the past couple of months, those have all been finalized, and if not finalized already. Thinking about it, when you're listening to this podcast, thinking about it, do you have the team currently that can lead that business on that strategy during 2018? And not only deliver, to exceed? And if there's weak links, are those weak links able to be developed to allow you to hit that target? If not, then thinking about how you make the necessary changes so your businesses are in the prime position for 2018 to achieve the goals that you've set out and get off on the front foot straight away.

Scott Buchanan: Yeah. What is the plan if the answers to some of those questions are "no", what is the plan? And actually, if the answers are "no", and there isn't a plan, then it's probably seriously worth considering why the best team isn't in place to go forward. Because that is what is going make the difference and it's getting pretty competitive out there, as I think we all know.

Terry Mallin: Yeah, yeah. And it's not all about having candidates within your business, it's actually having the right people suited to your business, suited to your culture that's bringing in the best possible skills and experience to deliver the challenges that you might face next year, but more importantly actually, the business decisions that'll get made to see the bottom number improve, or whatever that may be, that's key. So if that's something for our listeners to think about over the next couple weeks.

Scott Buchanan: Just on that point, I think especially at this time of year when things can get pretty busy, and I think it's too easy sometimes to actually reflect on, "Do I have a lot of forecastings going for 2018?" And it's actually asking "Do I have the talent and organization to allow for the growth to happen?" And I think by asking that question, you'll find your structure and your forecasting will tie in together, so it's not a bad thing to keep with.

Terry Mallin: And then the second one, Scott, so the second solution, so the problem that we discussed the first podcast was actually "Issues retaining key staff" and I kinda tie this more into a business reputation and making sure you have as positive a business reputation as possible. As business people and career-focused, we clearly want to be with a business that's got great branding, good marketing, the staff are happy, training and development's provided; the key aspect that I see is it's a career rather than a job. And I see most businesses out in our sector, it's a job to most staff, rather than a career, so it has to be a consistent message that's gone out to your workforce as well as out to the wider market for people who you're looking to attract in future. What are you doing to become, or be, the employer of choice in your specific market or industry? And that starts off by recognizing and rewarding individual performance. The current staff. Promotion within certain clear talent guidelines for staff, so they know that they can achieve certain things within the company, they know they can work their way up from shop floor and take the empty position. That way it drives great behaviours and the business will go in the right direction.

Scott Buchanan: And doing that latter point there, Terry, allows a bit of competition in the background, which makes it a more competitive team, which makes it probably a fighting team and a market that is there in a positive way. And I think that therein lies your opportunity for others to develop through that and actually can see that people who've been through the ranks, that actually, those are not gonna fail throughout the business which'll save companies a lot of money, by investing in development of staff, assuming that they're able to do so.

Terry Mallin: And we all know within manufacturing, it can be super, super fast paced, we can get stuck in a day-to-day a lot of the time, but really, it's a matter of actually takin' their head out of the sand, as you're looking at; how are you retaining staff? What the retention rate is first of all, and then actually what you can do to improve that. Or alternatively, how you can actually market to get the best people for your business to want to work for you because they see a future career, and are not just joining for the job, they're joining for the long term. They see that as a complete commitment to the business.

Terry Mallin: And probably the thought that I want to leave on positive business reputations, Scott, is it's so easy for us to think about it right now, as you're hearing about it, but actually starting out; not next year, now. It's the toughest nut to crack, but it's the most important. If you can retain your key staff on site, because they're happy, they're satisfied in their job, it's a company they see a career with, they're never gonna look anywhere else. For myself and Scott, as headhunters, even though I hate that word, they're never gonna entertain a conversation with me and Scott, they're going to be happy in their current role, which allows you to have a stable workforce, a stable management team, and any additions on the back of that, have to be equal or even better than that to raise the performance levels again. So it really kinda snowballs from there. But that's my two pence, guv.

Scott Buchanan: No, and you're right; and there's a couple of points in there, Terry, and to be honest, in good healthy businesses there is always some level of attrition within them for their own reasons and actually to get fresh ideas within the business. But actually, for the people that we work with and identify for our clients and so on; we're not looking for the average candidate, we are looking for the suitable [inaudible 00:09:00] for the clients that we're working with. And then at the end of the day, the number of candidates you speak to versus the temptation to leave, a lot of it's in their own career development and actually the relationship they have within the company, and it's simple things that can go a long way, definitely.

Terry Mallin: Yeah, good. Good! Just kinda summarized, Scott, the two points we've covered. So, the two problems was, business leaders that we speak to on a regular basis feel, possibly there could be improvements in their current management team and also they may possibly have issues retaining key staff. So, the solutions put in place, businesses, they want strong management teams, and they want their business to have a positive reputation out there on the marketplace. So hopefully that gives you a bit to think about tonight, going forward, it's very important, and I would definitely stress highly the most important is your business reputation internally and externally kinda sets you up to deliver all your future goals going forward with gettin' the best staff and retaining the best staff for your business, because as we all know, people make the business.

Scott Buchanan: Yeah, no, I agree. And actually just in the final point, if a business maybe over the years has not got the most positive reputation, things are changing for the future, actually can get a lot of buy-in from a given business as well, which sometimes is forgotten.

Terry Mallin: And remember, people can search you on the likes of glassdoor.com, literally, tonight or tomorrow morning, whenever you get a chance, go onto Glass Door, google it, "Glass Door" and type in your company's specific name to see if anyone's left a review because a lot of career-driven individuals will search Glass Door before they even entered in a conversation for them to take a position within a business, so it's weighted highly. Yeah, it's not the be-all and end-all, but it's important to see how your business reputation's out there to the market, to people that might not know your company already.

Scott Buchanan: Yeah, I guess by actually doing that, actually, Terry, I think then that's the most crucial stage, isn't it, because actually being honest to your own business as in to yourself or within that business, having the guts to check to see "What's the external market view of my business?". Because sometimes it's very easy to do that, so that's good advice definitely.

Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to the Manufacturing Ignition podcast. If you've made it this far, we take it that you enjoyed the show. In return, we'd love it if you'd leave us a rating and review on iTunes. Subscribe while you're there, and we'll catch you for the next episode.

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